Top 10 G1 Climax 25 Matches

After hearing all of the buzz about last year's G1 Climax, I wanted to make sure I saw as much of this year's as possible. I made the decision to watch the entire tournament using NJPW World and I don't regret it. Now that it's over, I'll be going back and watching last year's, but I wanted to rank the top ten matches I saw this year. I really enjoyed a vast majority of the G1 so this is a difficult task.

10. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tetsuya Naito (Night Three)

I was very close to picking Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi here but I give this one the slight edge. Two guys that I came out of this tournament really loving were Katsuyori Shibata and Tetsuya Naito and for completely different reasons. Shibata is an absolute beast. His hard hitting style is enthralling to watch. Naito on the other hand, had recently turned heel after a trip to CMLL, where he joined Los Ingobernables. His attitude and gimmick was an absolute joy to watch throughout. Here, early on in the tournament, these two wrestled a back and forth match. Naito, being the absolute dick that he is, decide to try and slap around Shibata, which I learned is a bad idea. Shibata retaliated with some big shots before winning after the sleeper hold/penalty kick combination. ****

9. Kota Ibushi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Night One)

Right out of the gate, the G1 Climax got a great match on night one. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi took the main event slot and made sure to give the fans a match to remember. A buddy of mine was asked to try and explain these two guys to someone who only watches WWE. His comparison was to look at it as if John Cena (Tanahashi) was facing Cesaro (Ibushi). Considering Tanahashi has been the top dog for a while, we've heard the Cena comparisons a lot. The Ibushi one for Cesaro makes some sense since Ibushi is deceptively strong like a Cesaro, while also being a freakishly good athlete. There was a level of intensity in this that I didn't expect, especially since I had heard some talk about Tanahashi taking it easy this year. He came out on night one and showed that he was ready to deliver in the G1. He won following the High Fly Flow to cap night one on the road to winning the entire thing. ****

8. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tomoaki Honma (Night Sixteen)

I had to include the night that HONMAMANIA ran wild. In the 2014 G1 Cilmax, Tomoaki Honma went winless and started this year's tournament the same way. He entered night 16, the second to last match for him, going up against Tomohiro Ishii. Earlier this year, at New Beginnings, these two had a match that many gave five stars to. On a Block that featured IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and Shinsuke Nakamura, they were given the main event slot and absolutely delivered. It was slightly below their New Beginnings match but the drama of Honma trying to get the win added to it. It was hard hitting and had a fantastic atmosphere before Honma was finally able to pick up his first G1 win. The place went absolutely ballistic and deservedly so. ****¼

7. AJ Styles vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Night Seventeen)

On the final night for the A Block, AJ Styles met Hiroshi Tanahashi and the stakes were as high as they could be. Both guys entered tied for the lead with 12 points, so the A Block was on the line. These are two of the three guys that have been IWGP Heavyweight Champion since 2011. AJ Styles has been my favorite wrestler since 2005 and I love that his move to NJPW has rejuvenated him. Both guys traded low blows out of desperation and Styles nearly won with the Calf Killer, which actually got built up well throughout the tournament. It went nearly 30 minutes but they did very well with it. Both guys countered the other's finishers and the final few minutes of this were pretty frantic. Styles has had some great closing stretches in his matches that I've seen this year. In the end, Tanahashi was able to pick up the victory in a match that ha an absolute main event and big fight feel. ****¼

6. Hirooki Goto vs. Tomohiro Ishii (Night Fourteen)

In the early days of the G1 Climax, I enjoyed the A Block more than the B Block. Maybe it was due to the B Block getting those weird single camera, no commentary shows or because the A Block had guys I really liked (Styles, Ibushi, Naito, Shibata etc.). However, the B Block would surpass them after a few shows because of matches like this one. Tomohiro Ishii and the IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hirooki Goto went to war in the night fourteen main event. This was two guys beating the holy hell out of each other for seventeen minutes and I loved it. The red hot crowd at Korakuen Hall added to a lot of the later nights in the tournament, including right here. There were great near falls, obvious stiff work and some good selling from both guys. Again, since I am only just starting to really get into NJPW, these are two guys that I hadn't really seen before this year, but I was completely into this. Goto was able to pick up the win in a must see match. ****¼

5. Michael Elgin vs. Tomohiro Ishii (Night Eighteen)

When it was first announced that Michael Elgin would be in the G1 Climax, you could practically hear the entire world groan in unison. Elgin is a pretty polarizing figure to say the least. However, from his first G1 match, where he was made to look like a beast against IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada, Elgin delivered. I can't think of a bad match that he had at all during the tournament and he saved his best for this show against Tomohiro Ishii. Ishii was pretty underrated throughout this, as he delivered consistently as well. Like a lot of Ishii matches I've seen, this was two guys just going to war with each other. Again, the hot crowd added to this. Elgin really got over during the G1 and it showed here. I never expected to love this the way that I did, but man, this was breathtaking. Ishii won, but Elgin came out looking amazing and I'm sure he will be welcomed back to NJPW with open arms. ****½

4. Kazuchika Okada vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (Night Eighteen)

Much like AJ Styles vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi on night seventeen, this would main event the eighteenth night and give us our B Block winner. Kazuchika Okada entered with 14 points and Shinsuke Nakamura entered with 12. This would also be a rematch of the G1 Finals last year, which was won by Okada. Again, I have to commend the crowd, which was hot throughout. Nakamura is someone that I've really come to enjoy in 2015, but the elbow injury that he suffered early in the G1 caused a lot of his performances to be lacking. It was clear early on in this match though, that he was feeling much better. It was like I was watching a different performer. Due to his popularity, Okada got a chance to play more of a heel role, which I like him much more in. He comes off as such a douche in an entertaining way. After an absolutely exciting back and forth match, Nakamura countered the Rainmaker into an arm bar in beautiful fashion. Okada submitted, setting the stage for our finals. ****½

3. AJ Styles vs. Kota Ibushi (Night Five)

This is a shining example of why I was really into the A Block early on in the tournament. I first saw Kota Ibushi in 2008 when he made some appearances for Ring of Honor and I obviously stated earlier that AJ Styles is my favorite wrestler. Ibushi won the New Japan Cup and chose to face Styles for the IWGP Heavyweight Title earlier in the year at Invasion Attack. I enjoyed that match but felt it went a bit too long for the work they did. Here, they stayed under twenty minutes and delivered a better match for it. Styles is a much smarter worker now than ever before and he played a great heel throughout this. Again, the finishing stretch here was magnificent. After a series of counters and Ibushi surviving Bloody Sunday, he won with the Phoenix Splash. This proved to be one of his biggest singles wins so far and was the best match of the first few days here. ****½

2. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (Finals)

To close out a tournament like this, the Finals should definitely deliver and this one did. Now, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura have met several times in the past. However, here I am again showing how new I am to the company, I have only seen them wrestle once before. When I first signed up for the world, I watched their match at Invasion Attack 2014. That one was great but I found this to be better. They were given more than a half hour and built to their climax. The leg work was well one throughout, they had a ton of close call near falls that the electric crowd bit on and everything was well done. I've seen a lot of people give it the full five star treatment, but I didn't. I asked about it and a lot of people mentioned that they played upon their past matches, which is something I always appreciate. However, having not seen many of their previous encounters, I overlooked these. Also, there was talk of how dramatic the final few minutes were and they were, but I had been spoiled of the result beforehand unfortunately, which took some of that away from me. I do feel like I may have gone with the perfect score if those two things weren't the case. Still, this is a must see match that is absolutely fantastic. Tanahashi won to become the G125 winner. ****¾

1. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kota Ibushi (Night Seven)

I loved every single thing about this match. Kota Ibushi and Katsuyori Shibata were two of my favorite people to watch in the tournament, even though both guys unfortunately were less impressive down the stretch, losing some matches I would have liked to see them win. On this night though, they stole the show. They each hit each other incredibly hard, showed off some mat work and put everything together to make this the best match possible. Shibata won an absolutely blistering match with the sleeper hold/penalty kick combo. Seriously, this is required viewing and if you haven't seen it yet, go find a way to do so right this second. It's honestly hard for me to put everything about this match into words, since I loved it so much and have watched it multiple times. It is, hands down, the best under fifteen minute match I have ever seen. ****¾

Raw 8/17/15 Review

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon opening Raw with a promo is really nothing new. What was new was that this was an even bigger waste of time than normal. They literally just ran down some of the SummerSlam card, while announcing like three things for tonight. It's basically like they had 15 minutes to fill and just said, let's go do a SummerSlan infomercial. This led straight into our opener, which pit Randy Orton and Cesaro against Kevin Owens and Sheamus. A fine idea and a relatively fine match but Orton just pins Sheamus with an RKO. Okay. So why should there even be an Orton/Sheamus match at SummerSlam? This should have ended via disqualification or something to not give away a potential SummerSlam finish. That's just poor booking.

They hype an "Undertaker Speaks" segment, but he can't be arsed to come out so it's a backstage one. The promo itself was fine, but man, he looks pretty horrible in his current state. In another example of "there's no reason to watch Smackdown", Roman Reigns faced Luke Harper in a rematch. They were given a fair amount of time and worked through the commercial. Dean Ambrose was alright on commentary, and he took Byron Saxton's chair to give to Bray Wyatt, but he didn't join them. Byron being forced to stand during parts of Raw is becoming a cool running joke. Reigns rallied to overcome the odds and won. Similar to the opener, you now just gave away another pinfall between two guys facing off at the PPV.

With hour two now beginning, it was time for another match in the Divas rivalry. The Bexcellent (yea, I did that) Becky Lynch took on the atrocious Tamina Snuka. It's like, Tamina was only kind of bad and then she got hurt, only to return as one of the absolute worst girls on the roster. I appreciate that they kept it short since Tamina is so bad. Becky made her tap out to win her first singles Raw match. I like that Becky is getting more shine because she's been used less than Charlotte or Sasha Banks so far. For the third or so straight week, Rusev took on Mark Henry next. Rusev won again and Lana, who was on commentary, entered the ring and challenged Summer Rae to fight. She bitch slapped her before calling Rusev in. This led to Dolph Ziggler's return, which the crowd popped for. We also saw Lana bust out a high kick on Summer. Dolph kicked Rusev as well, sending them packing. After a commercial, he challenged Rusev for SummerSlam. Overall, this was a good segment. The crowd reacted better than expected for Dolph, Lana's kick looked good and Rusev continued to be good at everything.

We get told that ESPN is going to broadcast SportsCenter live from the Barclays Center on Sunday, hosted by the Coach. That's kind of cool. Ryback faced Miz in a non-title match, while Big Show was on commentary. They hyped a straight to DVD film that Show has coming out so Miz wisely attacked his acting career on the stick. Show was fine on commentary, but Ryback pretty much destroyed Miz easily. This has been the story for a while now, so why should he even be in the Intercontinental Title match on Sunday. Lazy booking again. Ryback should have squashed someone not on the SummerSlam card, while Miz and Show argued on commentary. Moving on to start hour three, John Cena and Seth Rollins did their contract signing. Seth comes out first and kills on the mic. He says that Cena isn't Superman, he's a villain holding the WWE hostage for a decade. Just excellent stuff. Cena came out and, while I'm glad he wasn't joking around like he normally does, he completely shit on Seth. He called out everything about his title reign and basically said that if Seth doesn't win on Sunday, then he's a joke who doesn't matter. I honestly hate that because now, if Cena wins, Seth does indeed look like a joke. Also, if Cena wins, does it matter? He just called his opponent a joke, so it's a hollow win. I've come to enjoy a fair amount of Cena's work, but his promos still give me issues, especially when he does something like this.

An eight man tag followed, involving the teams in the Tag Title match at SummerSlam. New Day was the only team to get an entrance and they cut a fun little promo. The focus wasn't on the match and was more on El Torito and Xavier Woods at ringside. Kalisto won for his team & the PTP with a rana on a Matador. This was very blah. An excellent video package aired to hype the Stephen Amell/Neville vs. Barrett/Stardust match. Stardust and Barrett cut a promo in the back, where Stardust gave Barrett a "cosmic cape". Stardust is fantastic in this role. Our main event followed as it was Champion vs. Champion, when Sasha Banks faced Nikki Bella, even though Sasha never wears her belt. This should have been promoted much better and made to be a big deal. A match like this would be MASSIVE on NXT because it would be built right. In a decent but disappointing match, Sasha made Nikki tap out. I marked out and while it's a big win, it could have meant so much more if it was handled properly.

Paul Heyman introduced Brock Lesnar for his homecoming and hyped the match for Sunday. Brock gets a massive pop and then Heyman starts singing, which was all kinds of awesome. Unlike Cena earlier, Heyman's promo is masterful at putting over both Undertaker and Brock. Taker appears and kicked Brock in the balls again. I hope he understands that if he does that at SummerSlam, he'll get disqualified. This was basically a repeat of Battleground. I didn't care for it then and I don't care for it now. The fans booed Undertaker hard in the final segment. All in all, this episode felt like it was just there. I didn't really get hyped for SummerSlam, the booking was lazy and the close to the show was disappointing. There was so much more that could have been done with this episode. 4.5/10.

Top Five 8/10/15-8/16/15

1) Hiroshi Tanahashi: Honestly, there really couldn't be another choice. I didn't want Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the G1 Climax, but that's exactly what happened and his final two performances may have been his best. With the A Block on the line, he faced AJ Styles and they went on to have a very good match. I don't think it was a match of the year candidate like a lot of people did, but still great stuff. The next night, he got the pin in a really fun ten men tag team match while the B Block was decided. Then, in the finals of the G1, he took on Shinsuke Nakamura. These two went for over thirty minutes in a legit MOTY candidate. Both guys put on one hell of a performance and Tanahashi got the victory. We are now set for the Okada/Tanahashi rematch at the Tokyo Dome early next year. I wanted Nakamura to win, but Tanahashi killed it here.

2) Shinsuke Nakamura:  Obviously, had Shinsuke Nakamura won the G1, he would have topped the list. Instead, he has to settle for second but he still had a very impressive week. I'll start by going with his least impressive performance, which came in a win against Satoshi Kojima on the 12th. Then, he faced Kazuchika Okada on the last night before the finals. With Okada having 14 points and Nakamura having 12, he needed the win to win the block and he did. They had a great match (top 10 in the year for me) and Nakamura was able to make the IWGP Champion submit. Despite winning his block, Nakamura didn't have the best G1 and that may have had something to do with his injured elbow. That looked like a thing of the past in his last two matches, both of which were excellent.

3) reDRagon:  For a while now, I've considered reDRagon the best tag team in the world. On the G1 Climax Finals show, they defeated the most overrated team in pro wrestling (at least in my eyes), the Young Bucks to win back the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Titles. I couldn't have been happier to see this considering how good Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly are. I honestly get the sense they'll be doing more singles stuff soon in ROH, so it'll be nice to see them work as a team in NJPW for a bit longer. Hopefully, it's a good reign since these titles seem to change hands so often.

              4) Bayley: For the second straight week, Bayley makes the list by stealing the show on an episode of NXT. She is the only person to make my list and not do something in NJPW. Her match against Becky Lynch not only closed out NXT, but was possibly the best WWE match of the week. Similar to her bout against Charlotte last week, it was a very good back and forth contest won by Bayley. So not only has she recently become the second woman to pin Charlotte, but she has now beaten Becky as well, who is on the main roster. This made her the number one contender for the NXT Women's Title, which she'll most likely win at TakeOver: Brooklyn. It should be a special moment in front of the largest crowd in NXT history.

5) KUSHIDA: It was tough to pick a final person this week. There was Tomoaki Honma, who finally got his first G1 win. There was Michael Elgin, who put on a great match against another possible candidate, Tomohiro Ishii. Instead, I went with KUSHIDA. I've been a fan of the guy for a while and this isn't his first appearance on the list this year. First, he and Ricochet stole the show in a very fun ten man tag the night before the G1 Finals. Then, on the night of the finals, KUSHIDA successfully defended his IWPG Jr. Heavyweight Title against Ricochet in a good match. Hopefully he holds the belt until Wrestle Kingdom 10 and I get KUSHIDA vs. Alex Shelley. I can dream can't I?

Raw History Episodes 5-6

Raw History

Episode #5

February 15th, 1993 – Manhattan Center in Manhattan, New York

We continue the Road to WrestleMania IX with the fifth episode of Monday Night Raw!

Things open with Brutus Beefcake cutting a short promo about his return. It then cuts to Ted Dibiase cutting one back on him while Jimmy Hart is worried. Commentary is once again Vince McMahon, Macho Man and Rob Bartlett. Two jobbers are already in the ring for the opener.

Bobby Who and Glen Ruth vs. The Steiner Brothers
Yup. The dude's name is actually Bobby Who. I'm not sure which jobber is which but one starts with Scott and eats a full nelson suplex. It's actually very pretty. Rick gets the tag, causing the fans to bark and jobber #2 enters. Ah, according to Vince, this is Bobby Who. He doesn't fare much better. Rick decides to apply a rest hold for some strange reason and Who reaches the ropes. Rick hits a clothesline and tags Scott in. Tiger suplex followed by the top rope bulldog ends it.

Winners: The Steiner Brothers in 3:32
Just done to get the Steiner Brothers over. Basic stuff. *

Mean Gene brings us the WrestleMania Report, reminding us for the 100th time that it's going down in Las Vegas. Along with Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna, more matches are announced. First up, The Undertaker will take on the Giant Gonzalez. Also, Crush goes one on one with Doink the Clown.

Ross Greenberg vs. Yokozuna w/ Mr. Fuji
This is the third Yokozuna match in five episodes of Raw. They keep doing this thing on commentary where Macho Man's headset is messed up so all we hear are weird sound bytes of him complaining. It's strange since we saw Macho Man at ringside at the start of the show. Anyway, Yokozuna hits a big belly to belly suplex and a leg drop before polishing off Ross with the Banzai Drop.

Winner: Yokozuna in 2:01
Another Yokozuna match where he gets all of the offense. SQUASH

Time for a Special Report, hosted by Lord Alfred Hayes. He talks about “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan becoming the first man to knock Yokozuna off of his feet in singles competition on Superstars this week. Like an idiot, Duggan celebrated like he won the match, allowing Yokozuna to throw salt in his eyes. Two Banzai Drops later, Duggan was stretchered out.

Commentary states that the Giant Gonzalez said he wanted in the Battle Royal tonight, causing the rest of the participants to say they would not compete if that's the case. More Superstars clips are shown, this one of the Giant Gonzalez winning a three on one handicap match.

Sixteen Man Battle Royal
There is no mentioning of who is in the Battle Royal as it's just a big cluster. Shawn Michaels stays outside for a bit to let everyone else fight. Kim Chee continually exits under the bottom rope to avoid Kamala. I also see El Matador, Owen Hart, Tatanka, Skinner, Terry Taylor, Koko B. Ware, Damien Damento, Typhoon, Bob Backlund and Razor Ramon. Koko is first out via a Shawn Michaels back body drop. Kim Chee continues to avoid Kamala as we get a lot of near eliminations. Typhoon knocks out Skinner with a SHOCKING clothesline. Kamala dumps out Damento as well. Owen Hart jumps on the Berzerker's back but gets flipped over and out. Kamala is on fire as he kicks Berzerker out before battling with Typhoon. Kim Chee decides to get involved as he helps Typhoon get another SHOCKING elimination on Kamala. The Ugandan Giant gets back in and tosses out Kim Chee, forcing him to flee through the crowd and up in the balcony. We get our final SHOCK of the night as Shawn Michaels rids the ring of Typhoon. The final four are El Matador, Tatanka, Razor and Michaels. The first signs of the Kliq can be seen as Razor and Shawn decide to team up. This battle royal is made better because Bartlett's headset is busted now, so he's silent and Macho Man is calling the action. The match breaks down into tag stuff until Shawn gets dumped out. The Giant Gonzalez shows up from the back and is bored with the match so he eliminates Tatanka and El Matador on his own. Razor slid under the bottom rope when he came out, so once he leaves, Razor gets back in and is announced as the victor.

Winner: Razor Ramon in 15:03
Your typical battle royal. Lots of punches, kicks and stalls. I also don't like battle royals with nothing on the line. At least someone awful didn't win. **

Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake vs. Ted Dibiase w/ Jimmy Hart
Commentary really plays up how concerned they are about Beefcake's return. I wouldn't be concerned since every single time Dibiase tries to lock up, Beefcake instead chooses to strut. Jimmy Hart can be heard shouting “he's quick, he's fast, watch out.” This makes no sense as Beefcake is in no way fast. He reels off a few right hands that send Dibiase to the outside. Dibiase gets in and tries to smash Beefcake's face into the corner but it's blocked and Dibiase goes in. A side headlock is applied, because Beefcake's offense sucks as IRS strolls to ringside. As Beefcake gets sent into the ropes, IRS smashes him with his briefcase in the back.

Winner via disqualification: Brutus Beefcake in 4:26
That was boring. Beefcake sucks but at least it was short. *

Money Inc. continue to pound away on Brutus Beefcake as Jimmy Hart pleads with them to stop. IRS shoves Hart to the ground and levels Beefcake in the face. It's funny because Beefcake was held by Dibiase for like four full minutes and didn't counter or move at all. He sells it like his face has been broken again as Hart checks on him. As Beefcake is taken out, some clearly fake looking blood stains are in the ring.

Overall: 4/10; Weak. The Road to WrestleMania IX continues on with a second straight disappointing episode. We got another Yokozuna squash and the battle royal was different in a good way. However, any show that has Brutus Beefcake in the main event is going to suffer. They're building the stories relatively well heading into WrestleMania IX but that's two straight episodes that I was not a fan of.

Raw History

Episode #6

February 22nd, 1993 – Manhattan Center in Manhattan, New York

The show open with Rob Bartlett doing a play on SNL by saying “LIVE FROM NEW YORK IT'S MONDAY NIGHT RAW!” He still sucks. Vince McMahon and Macho Man join him on commentary as they hype the card for tonight. 

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Scott Taylor
The future Scotty 2 Hotty seems like he's here to do the job to Bam Bam Bigelow. Instantly, Bam Bam shoulder blocks Taylor to the mat hard twice. Bam Bam continues to overpower and work him over as commentary just continues to plug Hulk Hogan's appearance later tonight. Seriously, they mention it like 14 times. A big backbreaker followed by the flying headbutt is enough but Bam Bam drops two more headbutts to finish it.

Winner: Bam Bam Bigelow in 3:01
Impressive showing for Bam Bam and the final headbutts were impressive. SQUASH

An interview with Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan is shown, discussing the future of Hulkamania. Hogan talks about mistakes that he's made but that he's ready to return. 

Six Man Tag Team Match
The Beverly Brothers and Shawn Michaels vs. Tatanka and The Nasty Boys
Commentary discusses how Tatanka defeated Shawn Michaels in a non-title contest. Tatanka attacks at the bell and everyone goes at it until Tatanka back body drops Shawn outside. Bartlett calls it the coolest thing he's ever seen. As things cool down, the Nasty Boys give the Beverly Brothers a double pit stop. Things turn around as Shawn gets the tag and they work basic heel tactics on Brian Knobbs. Knobbs rallies and Tatanka gets the tag, so Shawn tags out. The faces begin to work over Beau, aka Beverly #1. We go to commercial and Bartlett says that they stopped during commercial only to resume as the broadcast came back. The heels have begun to beat up on Knobbs as the Beverly Brothers use the World's Greatest Tag Team's finisher, which is rather embarrassing as I love them and hate the Beverly Brothers. The fans won't stop chanting “nasty” but it's not helping Knobbs much. He finally makes the hot tag to Tatanka who takes out Michaels. He gets a very close near fall as they announce that Michaels defends against Tatanka at WrestleMania. Beau breaks up another pin attempt but the Nasty Boys get involved and knock them outside. This allows Tatanka to score a second straight pin over HBK with a rollup!

Winners: Tatanka and The Nasty Boys in 15:02
Pretty basic tag team match. Nothing of note really happened but I did enjoy Tatanka and Shawn's interactions. Maybe their match at WrestleMania will be really good. **1/4

Sean Mooney is outside to promote more of the Hulk Hogan appearance.

Crush vs. “Terrific” Terry Taylor
They begin with smack talk and Crush shoves Terry Taylor to the mat with force. Taylor fights back with a snap mare on the top rope. Oh goodness, Vince McMahon gets a “phone call” and it's Bartlett doing a sad Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation. I hate these things. Taylor applies a chinlock but Crush uses the power of Hawaii to fight out brudda. Crush hits a few moves and then does the coconut crush or whatever it was called for the win.

Winner: Crush in 3:46
Another nothing match. Crush never really impressed me. *

We get a recap of the brutal assault on Brutus Beefcake last week. Vince McMahon is now in the ring and he brings out Hulk Hogan to a big pop, much better than Beefcake's last week. He rambles until he brings out Beefcake. He's sporting fake bruises and tape on his nose as he rambles. If anyone ever benefited more from being Hogan's friend than Brutus, please point it out to me. They introduce their new manager, Jimmy Hart, who has turned his back on Money Inc! They lay down a challenge for Money Inc and call themselves the Mega Maniacs. 

Skinner vs. The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer
Skinner attacks at the bell and there is like, less than a minute left on the show. Skinner chokes The Undertaker outside the ring as Vince McMahon begins to sign off saying that we will see the conclusion of the match next week along with a WWF Title match.

Overall: 5/10; Mediocre. I thought it was nice to see a fifteen minute match on the card, though I wish it was something better than the six man tag that we got. The Hulk Hogan promo was the typical stuff he'd do but it got the crowd pumped. I strongly dislike ending a show in the middle of the match but what can you do?

NXT Report 8/12/15

We start with a wwe.com interview with William Regal. He is asked about Kevin Owens saying that he doesn’t trust him and wants a ladder match. Regal says that his personal feelings won’t interfere with his decision making. He doesn’t give in to demands but Finn Balor wants it as well and the ladder match will go down.

Solomon Crowe vs. Tye Dillinger

Tye Dillinger is finally debuting his “perfect 10″ gimmick! They go through an exchange that Dillinger wins and then flashes “10” with his hands. He escapes Crowe and does a cartwheel before going back into the “10” stuff. Crowe gets pissed and chops him in the corner before snapping off a hurricanrana. He hits a pretty cool kick but runs into one from Tye. He applies a chinlock while telling everyone that he’s a perfect ten. Tye removes his knee pad but Crowe rallies before he can use it. He hits a cool neckbreaker variation and a running knee in the corner. Crowe catches a kick and tries for the Stretch Muffler but is kicked outside. He runs in and eats a one legged Codebreaker variation for the 1-2-3.

Winner: Tye Dillinger in 4:35

The new gimmick is fun for Tye Dillinger. Solomon Crowe still hasn’t really impressed much in NXT, but this was all around relatively fun from both guys. Solid start here. **

A video from earlier today shows Mojo Rawley meeting up with Zack Ryder outside. Mojo is in his gear, which confuses Ryder. It doesn’t lead anywhere.

Baron Corbin vs. Axel Tischer

Baron Corbin attacks with a big corner splash. He hits the End of Days and that’s a wrap.

Winner: Baron Corbin in 0:32

This was what you’d expect. NO RATING.

After the match, Corbin gets on the mic to say that nobody gets up from the End of Days. Steve Cutler runs out and eats one too. This brings out Samoa Joe who says that he’s impressed with Corbin. He says that Corbin can’t do what he just did to him. Corbin says he can do it to anyone, including Joe. Joe wants him to try right now. Corbin declines to do it now, but gets in some cheap shots. Joe locks in the rear naked choke and Corbin passes out.

Time for another Bull Fit video package. This one is shorter and not as entertaining.

The graphic is shown to hype Tyler Breeze vs. Jushin Thunder Liger. We go to a self shot video posted by Breeze to talk about the match. He says that he’s going to dispose of Liger just like he did to Hideo Itami.

Non-Title Match: NXT Champion Finn Balor vs. Marcus Louis

Marcus Louis is still dressed like a mini Kane. He gets in some early shots but obviously isn’t doing real damage. Oh wait, he does hit a chokeslam of sorts. It’s like they’re having him do Kane like offense on purpose. Finn rallies with some chops and the slingblade. The corner dropkick is followed with the double stomp to win.

Winner: NXT Champion Finn Balor in 2:44

Marcus Louis got in more offense than I expected. Still, this wasn’t much more than a squash. *1/2

As Finn Balor heads up the ramp, Kevin Owens attacks him from behind. he tries the apron powerbomb but Balor gets free and dropkicks him through the guardrail. Unfortunately, when they go into the ring, he runs into a popup powerbomb. A small “Cena beat you” chant breaks out.

The Vaudevillains are interviewed to find out about their plan to even out Alexa Bliss at TakeOver. Alexa interrupts, saying it’s flattering that two big strong men need to find someone to take care of her. She slaps both before leaving.

An Apollo Crews vignette is shown.

They run down the TakeOver card and officially announce Baron Corbin vs. Samoa Joe.

Sasha Banks comes out to join commentary for the main event.

Number One Contender’s Match: Bayley vs. Becky Lynch

The crowd sings Becky’s entrance theme as she instantly targets Bayley’s arm. They continue to go through an exchange of holds until Bayley hits a snapmare and running back elbow. Becky comes back with some Ricky Steamboat like arm drags. Becky continues to hit some moves, mostly focusing on the arm. Bayley tries to rally, but Becky goes back to the arm, trapping it with her feet and kicking it away. Becky’s nose has been busted. She has Bayley’s number at every turn. After a commercial, Bayley comes back with some shots. She hits a shoulder thrust but Becky dodges her next attack and hits a springboard kick. She goes for another suplex but Bayley counters into a rollup for two. She gets two more near falls. Becky hits the pumphandle suplex for a near fall. Bayley escapes another shot and hits her corner back elbow combination this time. She tightens the hairband and nails the second rope elbow for two. Bayley sends Becky to the apron, but is met with a kick when she goes forward. She climbs up but gets crotched. Bayley brings her down with a running powerslam of sorts for yet another near fall. Becky is able to apply the DisArmHer from out of nowhere but Bayley is close to the ropes. Becky goes for another suplex but Bayley counters with one of her own. She tries the Belly to Bayley but Becky blocks and tries another armbar. Bayley counters that into a pinning combination and wins.

Winner: Bayley in 12:45

Really good match here. Becky Lynch’s offense targeting Bayley’s arm is so damn good. Bayley as the underdog, plucky babyface is the perfect spot for her. Both girls came out looking good and this all worked well. ***1/2

No Brock or Taker Raw Review

Raw kicks off this week the same way that it did last week, with WWE Champ Seth Rollins. He brags about keeping the belt last week and what he did to John Cena. He shows a picture of Cena on the screen and they do some comedy stuff with Cena's mouth cut out and Seth dubbing in some stuff. It made me laugh a bit but didn't really build towards SummerSam. Cesaro came out to accept an open challenge but Seth quickly says there is none. Kevin Owens and Randy Orton don't listen though and come to to accept too. Triple H shows up and books a triple threat match for later, with the winner facing Seth for the gold tonight. Your usual opening segment but at least it made the WWE title feel as wanted as the US Title.for once this year. The opening contest was a six women tag pitting Team Bella against Team BAD. The lazily named Team PCB was on commentary and honesty, stunk up the joint there. The match itself was relatively fine but I had one major issue. The Bella Twins played face, specifically Brie. Stop flip flopping them. I get that they were near Daniel Bryan's home, but Brie shouldn't be doing Bryan stuff. Be a fucking heel. They won, leading to a brawl between everyone, even giving us a tease of the Charlotte/Sasha rivalry. I wish that the girls were given more time to develop characters rather than have matches. Why is Alicia Fox a Bella? They explained that Becky joined up with Paige due to their past, but why did Charlotte? What is the reason for any of this?

The entertaining New Day faced Los Matadores next in a decent tag team match. The Prime Time Players watched from the back. New Day won but the story was the post match dance celebration. New Day's gimmick has basically become "obnoxious viners" as my buddy pointed out, and I'm totally okay with that. Backstage, they meet up with Renee Young, who informs them that they get a shot at SummerSlam along with Los Matadores and the Lucha Dragons. So the loss that Los Matadores just suffered means nothing I guess. I wish that they actually took time to build a legit tag team program instead of giving teams wins over each other and throwing them all into the big Pay-Per-View match.

To close hour one, the number one contender's Triple Threat match took place. Cesaro, Kevin Owens and Rusev had an excellent triple threat match last month and while this one was really good, it didn't quite reach that level for me. Everybody got a chance to shine and it nearly went 20 minutes. Orton won with an RKO on Cesaro. The only way this finish makes sense to me is if Seth Rollins cleanly beats Orton later in the night. He needs to look strong heading into SummerSlam. Next, we got a video package to build Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker. This is the biggest issue with booking part timer vs. part timer. Neither guy shows up. I prefer that we don't get rematch after rematch heading into a PPV, but at least show up and give me some reason to care.

Dean Ambrose faced Luke Harper in a preview of upcoming "Diet Shield vs. Wyatts" match at SummerSlam. This was fine as the match was good and Luke Harper was able to pick up the win, which he needs since he never gets to look very good. That was followed by MizTV with Daniel Bryan. Bryan is just as over as ever and I realized here just how much I missed him. Miz was great in this segment, saying that Ryback should give up the title just like the injured Bryan did. This brings out Big Show to bore us before Ryback returned. He took out both Show and Miz and celebrated with Bryan. Having the crowd "Yes" and chant "Feed Me More" at the same time was pretty cool. I'm not a fan of the Intercontinental Title program, but at least this was a good way to build it without just having two of the three guys wrestle.

After a video package to hype up Charlotte, we get a new match made for SummerSlam. Team PCB vs. Team Bella vs. Team BAD in an elimination match. Rusev met Mark Henry next in a rematch from last week. Lana was on commentary and went after Summer Rae. Somehow, this caused a disqualification. Summer ended up getting the better and locked Lana in the Accolade. Then, because Rusev is amazing, a flag came down from the rafters with Rusev's face on it. It was magnificent and continued Rusev's trend of being so ridiculous that it's incredible. Also, Summer Rae's Accolade looked like it was going to break Lana in half. Either she pulled back harder than she should have or Lana can bend in strange ways.

Neville took on King Barrett next following a sweet Neville/Stardust comic book like video package. Neville won in relatively short order but the real story was after as Stardust appeared to attack Neville. He turned his attention to Stephen Amell, who was in the front row. Stardust shoved him and got back in the ring. Amell hopped the guardrail and leaped into the ring in athletic fashion before attacking Stardust. It came off better than I expected. In the back, Triple H was upset with Amell for getting involved. Neville asks for a tag match against Stardust and Barrett. Amell says his lawyers will sign whatever they have to and the match is made. Amell was great here. The combination of being an actor and a big wrestling fan is key as Amell made sure to bring his A game. Barrett's inclusion is random as hell but this should be fun.

Time for the main event as Seth Rollins defends the WWE Title against Randy Orton. They worked a solid match that wasn't as good as their WrestleMania one but better than their Extreme Rules cage match. Orton hit a massive RKO and covered but Sheamus came out to cause the DQ. Seriously? If they were going to go for the DQ finish, why not have Cesaro win the triple threat? Then he can have a great showing against the champion and win via DQ after Kevin Owens interfered or something. This made no sense and only furthered to make Seth look like a chump and build towards another Sheamus/Orton match that nobody wants to see. Sheamus teased cashing in but Orton stopped him. Overall, this was another middle of the pack Raw. There was some good and some bad. I give it a slight thumbs up because it was cool to see Daniel Bryan, Stephen Amell, New Day and the triple threat was good. 6.5/10

Fave Five 8/3/15-8/10/15

1) Mil Muertes: The biggest show this past week was Lucha Underground's two hour Ultima Lucha finale. At the tip top of that card was Prince Puma defending the Lucha Underground Championship against Mil Muertes. They went on to have one of my favorite matches in LU history and it was more than worthy of a season finale. Puma has been the only champion in history, but lost it here to Muertes after a hard fought battle. When you think about the fact that Mil Muertes is actually Judas Mesias/Ricky Banderas, you realize just how far he's come. Throughout the entire season of LU, he was one of the top performers and putting the belt on him was a great move in my eyes.

2) Pentagon Jr./Vampiro: I went with both guys here because they deserve equal praise. People were pretty split on the Pentagon Jr./Vampiro match. Some loved it, some hated it. I was closer to loving it for sure. The match was brutal, the storytelling was spot on and most importantly, it was fun. I had a blast watching all of Lucha Underground but this match had me on the edge of my seat. Let me get this out of the way, I've never been a Vampiro fan. I thought he was cool in WCW when I was 10, but looking back, he was never very good. So the fact that fifteen years later, he could have a really good match impressed the hell out of me. Pentagon Jr. delivered in every possible way during this war and, if we get a second season, their pairing is something I'm really looking forward to.

3) Bayley: My favorite WWE match of the week was easily the encounter between Bayley and Charlotte. With the recent callups of Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks, that kind of leaves Bayley as the top NXT girl left. This week, she did what only one other girl has been able to do in the past and that was pin Charlotte cleanly in singles competition. The match was really good and full of emotion. Bayley's win was a big deal and there was even a sweet shot of a huge Bayley fan in tears after receiving a post match hug. Bayley's character development has been one of the best things that NXT has done in history and I see it coming full circle very soon.

              4) Kazuchika Okada: Early on in the G1, I was enjoying the A Block a lot more than the B Block. That has actually been changing lately as the B Block has been delivering. The guy to go undefeated during the week was the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Kazuchika Okada. I obviously don't want to see the champion win the whole thing and his match against Yujiro Takahashi wasn't anything to write home about but I liked the matches against Anderson and Ishii. The performances have been good but not great. Regardless, he is racking up the wins. Not only that but he is leading the entire G1 in points right now, suffering only one loss and of course, none of those came this week.

5) Alberto El Patron: Originally, I was going to rank Johnny Mundo here since he did beat Alberto El Patron at Ultima Lucha this week. Then I remembered that TripleMania took place. So first things first, despite losing to Mundo, El Patron took part in a really good match and got the better of Mundo. After losing due to interference from Melina, he threw Mundo headfirst into a window and then spanked Melina, which ain't too bad. At TripleMania, he defeated Brian Cage in a solid affair, forcing Cage to shave his head. Since leaving WWE, El Patron has done very well for himself and this was another good week for him.